Even though you may have won a yes from your buyer, it’s important to continue to earn the right to more yeses. People buy from sales pros they trust. Once trust is established and the buyer is satisfied with their purchase (becoming a happy client), it’s time to get some referred leads.

You begin this step of the sales process by creating an exceptional buying experience for each person. Realize that this is just the first step. Just because people love buying from you doesn’t mean they’ll give you referrals. You will still have to ask for them–in a completely professional manner.

It’s highly likely that your new clients will be telling others about their new product or service, and about how nice you were. People love being the one who referred others to a great product or excellent service. It allows them to become somewhat of a hero in the minds of those other people. And, who doesn’t want to be a hero?

Setting the stage to ask for referrals should happen fairly early in your sales process. It can be as simple as stating, “Our objective is to provide such exceptional service that you can’t wait to refer us to your friends and colleagues.”

Or, you could incorporate a story about another client into your presentation as you tell about a benefit of your product. That might sound like this: “A client referred me to Sheila, an office manager who said her company had a challenge with…” It’s a bit more subtle but still gets the point across that “people refer others to me.”

And, here’s an extra little hint for getting multiple referrals. When your buyer goes to their contact list to get you the information to reach out to Aunt Martha or Bob in another department, their whole world is right there at their fingertips. It’s super easy to ask them to also grab the contact information for three to six other people who could benefit from your product or service.

When you incorporate asking for referrals into every client contact (professionally, not in a pushy way), you practically guarantee yourself a successful career. Don’t think of it as asking for something else from buyers. What you’re really doing is offering to serve the needs of their friends, relatives or associates.

There has never been any argument in advertising circles that the most effective business advertising is word-of-mouth advertising.

That’s why direct selling is so dramatically successful as a method of marketing every imaginable product and service, and why direct selling is such a great business in which to be. As a direct salesperson conversationally telling another person why you like a particular product, you are much more convincing advertisement than any TV commercial or magazine ad.

Sales professionals handle challenges promptly. This includes returning calls as quickly as possible, researching the details of what caused the challenge and finding creative ideas for resolving them.

No one wants to face an angry client. Yet delaying a response to their challenge will only create more challenges down the road. Dont’ feel that you have to have a solution before you contact them.

Think about how you feel when you’re unhappy about something. Isn’t it better when someone just gets back to you quickly to either gather the details or just to listen to you vent? Once calmness and clarity reign, solutions can be sought and provided.

The better you are at resolving the inevitable challenges associated with being in sales, the more your business will grow–by referral. You can bet John and Sally will tell everyone they know about their challenge. Don’t you think it’s wise to give them a happy ending to the story (wth you being the hero)?

Even if you are unable to resolve their challenge fully or immediately, stay in touch with unhappy clients until they’re satisfied or ready to move forward–continuing to do business with you.

Through your prospecting efforts, you encounter more people in a single month than the average business owner does in a year. Because of that you can enhance your role as a product or service provider with all of your clients. Make yourself more valuable to your existing clients and they’ll do more business with you. They’ll also provide you with more referrals than you’re getting now. With referral business, they’ll help you cut down the amount of time you need to spend prospecting.

You do this by sharing ideas. Start paying attention to what Company A is doing to survive the current market. Watch what they are doing with their advertising and ask if it’s working well for them. Consider if it’s something Company B might also benefit from as well. Becoming a gatherer and sharer of ideas is just as important in serving the needs of your clients as anything else.

Of course, never share information between competing companies. However, when it’s appropriate, be a walking reference guide for all of your clients. Not only will they thank you verbally for the input, they’ll thank you with their continued business.

If your largest accounts have cut back their ordering, it’s likely have a little time on your hands in the servicing area of your job. Invest more time attending to the needs of your smaller account. They will appreciate the added attention. You might also find new avenues to sales through increased business with them. Even better, they may provide you with referrals to other potential clients that allows you to cut your prospecting time. A warm referral is better than a cold call any day.

The average business loses 15% of their clients on an annual basis. It’s safe to assume that some clients move away or sadly, pass away. If you sell to businesses, some of them may close. But, many simply stop coming. That’s because you haven’t established relationships with those clients. The clients feel no loyalty…no obligation to return.

With the cost of gaining new business five times that of keeping current clients, it’s wise to do all you can to keep those people coming back for more.

Even if your product has a long life span and people shouldn’t need to replace it for a long time, you still want to work on keeping those clients loyal to you. The reason: They’ll tell their friends, relatives and even strangers about what a great experience they had with you. They’ll be your biggest fans and provide free advertising for you with their testimonials and referrals. [Read more…]

Today, I wanted to THANK YOU for something you’ve been teaching for years – the power of the Thank You note. You always said we should write notes – by hand – and send them out to people.

So here’s what I want to talk about – hand written notes vs. sending a line of thanks on e-mail. I think this concept is ambiguous in today’s marketplace because so much of our communication is now delivered in electronic format. Internet based communications have a lot of pros – they’re Green, aka easy on our environment, etc., but yet, electronic media still feels a bit impersonal, don’t you think?

I still send hand written thank you notes to customers and clients, and am continually astonished by their reactions. I guess they’re surprised I still know how to put pen to paper and lick a stamp! Many recipients act as if I am the only soul alive who ever sent them a card, or worse, they haven’t received one since the 1980’s, and treat it as some bit of cherished nostalgia. It’s a sad statement, really. I believe people should expect more from service professionals.

For that reason, I cannot overemphasize the value of the handwritten thank you note. I believe it’s more important than ever, because so few people do it anymore.

Sales pros who take time to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace are sure to see that effort impact their bottom line. Thank You notes are the easiest way I know to be seen.

Shelley Kaehr, Ph.D. is a world renowned life coach and author of over thirty books including Sales 101: Simple Solutions for Sales Success, whichTom calls, “Proof that good things come in smallpackages.” Visit Shelley online at www.shelleykaehr.com